This invention relates to a coin feeding device, for use in coin exchangers, coin operated gaming machines or the like, which feeds predetermined number of coins one by one held in a hopper in bulk.
The coin feeding devices of this kind is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,433, issued on May 20, 1986 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,718, issued on Mar. 19, 1991. Such a coin feeding device comprises a hopper for holding a supply of coins or tokens in bulk. Within the hopper, a rotary disc is rotatably disposed and is provided with a central circular stage. A plurality of coin transporting pins are provided with a carrier. The pins are protruded in a peripheral portion around the central circular stage and spaced apart in the peripheral direction of the rotary disc. Further, a coin delivery guide is extended across the peripheral portion of the rotary disc for guiding coins on the peripheral portion to an outlet chute. The carrier having a plurality of coin transporting pins spaced apart in the circumferential direction is rotatably supported at the rear side of the rotary disc. The carrier is rotated at an angle to the rotary disc such as to extrude the pins extended through the rotary disc from the surface of the peripheral portion of the rotary disc in a minimum amount at a position of the delivery guide and in a maximum amount at a coin picking up position.
Thus, such structure allows the coin feeding device to improve the function of picking up coins from the bottom portion of the hopper by means of a long transporting pin. In this event, coins are transported without jamming in the upper delivery portion. In addition, it is possible for this device to improve a coin dispensing efficiency by providing means for agitating coins in the lower portion of the hopper. In other words, it is possible to increase the number of coins transported per second. In particular, in the coin feeding device disclosed in the above mentioned U.S. Patent, there is no problem of Interference between the outlet chute and the coin transporting pins.
Recently, it has been desired to further improve coin dispensing efficiency of the device. For satisfying such demand, it can be considered to increase the rotation speed of the rotary disc or to increase the diameter of the rotary disc. However, in the coin feeding device of the type described, there is a defect that increased rotation speed of the coin feeding disc results in uncertain operation thereof. In particular, with the coin feeding device as described in the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,433, coins are delivered to an outlet chute by means of a delivery knife or the coin delivery guide and a counter roller. The counter roller is provided opposite upwardly to the delivery knife. When the coin feeding disc is rotated at a relatively high speed, a coin will not necessarily delivered just to the outlet chute. Accordingly, in such a coin feeding device, it is necessary to restrict the rotation speed of the coin feeding disc for securing reliable operation thereof.
In addition, the centrifugal force inevitably acts to the rotary-disc, which causes the coins move outwards. Because of the centrifugal force, a coin tends to leave its passage or to fly off the disc. This problem is more serious when the rotary disc is rotated at a relatively high speed.
In order to overcome such problems, a coin sorting device has been developed where the rotary disc is rotated at a high speed. In this device, the coins are radially outwardly transported on the rotary disc with effectively utilizing the centrifugal force. More particularly, the coins are guided to the outlet chute by means of a peripheral guide member, an outlet guide member or the like arranged at the peripheral portion of the rotary disc.
However, in the coin sorting device of the type described, a large dish-like hopper is generally used in order to smoothly supply an adequate number of coins. In addition, it is necessary to use a rotary disc having large diameter to prevent the coins flying away of the disc. This results in the device being enlarged.